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Google To Unveil Mobile Payments Trial: Report

Bloomberg is reporting that Google will formally announce a mobile payments service later this week. The service will reportedly be offered initially through US carrier Sprint. The service will be initially available in five US cities: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. according to Bloomberg.

Interestingly Sprint has its own recently launched stored-credit card payments capability. However it doesn’t appear to have much adoption to date.

The Bloomberg report says the Google payments program will utilize near-field-communications-enabled (NFC) Android handsets. All Android handsets running the Gingerbread (or later) version of the operating system are NFC-capable.

Mobile payments platforms and mobile wallets are in active stages of development or, in some cases, deployment by mobile operators, credit card issuers and others (e.g., Google) both in the US and internationally. Apple will deploy NFC-capable iPhones at some point in the future (though reportedly not in iPhone 4S/5).

While the NFC infrastructure in the US is very limited at best, early deployment by Google and operator partners could give the company a head start in what will become a very important consumer market segment.

About The Author

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog, Screenwerk, about connecting the dots between digital media and real-world consumer behavior. He is also VP of Strategy and Insights for the Local Search Association. Follow him on Twitter or find him at Google+.